Science fiction (often abbreviated “sci-fi” or “SF”) is a genre of speculative fiction that imagines advanced scientific or technological progress and how humans would respond to it. Its roots go back to early works of the Enlightenment, but the modern genre emerged in the 19th century with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), which explored the dangers of scientific experimentation.
Since then, sci-fi has grown into many subgenres, such as space operas, cyberpunk, and climate fiction.